Cyber Squared Inc. has released the results of a six month investigation âProject Enlightenment: An Overview of Modern Cyber Espionage in a Global Economyâ. This project demonstrated how Cyber Squaredâs response to a single incident uncovered a sustained espionage campaign against dozens of U.S. and international private sector companies and organizations across a variety of business verticals. The motivation behind the attack of these particular victims was likely to gain tactical and strategic advantage over large commercial transactions, and to collect information on issues such as international trade, commerce, legislation and human rights.
âThis story is unique, because of the diversity of the victim types all being compromised by the same adversary,â said Adam Vincent, Cyber Squaredâs CEO. âWhen considering the significance of the observed victims and their role within their respective industries, the compromises are especially worrisome.â
What initially appeared to be an isolated cyber-attack possibly associated with the Taiwan Airpower Modernization Act (TAMA)Â S.1539, unraveled the thread of a pervasive and coordinated military grade cyber espionage campaign. During the course of the investigation, technical intricacies emerged, such as how the attack was carried out and who the likely perpetrator was.
By applying real-time Security Intelligence, which required both a bottom-up victim approach along with a top-down technical assessment of the adversarial capability surrounding this single incident, Cyber Squared was able to discover the following types of victims were compromised by the same threat:
U.S. Public Policy Think Tanks and Research Organizations
International Steel, Gold and Copper Mining and Raw Materials Organizations
International Law Firms & Public Relations Organizations
East Asian Economic Policy and Diplomacy
âThis case underscores that many business leaders and policy makers are failing to adequately address the reality of cyber espionage,â said Richard Barger, Cyber Squaredâs Chief Intelligence Officer. âFrom a technical perspective, Project Enlightenment is another example of increasingly common cyber espionage activities. While the attack method was simple, it successfully compromised dozens of organizations and bypassed their existing security and detection measures. This project illustrates why better protection via real-time Security Intelligence is essential to protecting sensitive corporate information.â
By applying Security Intelligence to understand the adversary, what they are after, and how they get in, it is possible to proactively defend networks, protect the assets within, and maintain business continuity. It is Cyber Squaredâs Security Intelligence that transitions our clients from a state of reactive security to a proactive one through an intelligence-led, threat-focused approach to cyber security – an essential tool against cyber espionage.
The Project Enlightenment Case Study is available for download, and a whitepaper that includes technical details of the compromise is available from Cyber Squared under NDA.
Note that Cyber Squared has notified all victims identified during the course of our investigation, as well as the proper authorities.
And why not? Spend some time here and you can feel as if youâd been admitted to the backstage preparations for a magic show. The difference is that in espionage, life or death and the fate of nations are at stake, rather than whether a woman can be successfully sawed in half or an ace of spades pulled from a shuffled deck. These magicians werenât performing; they were dueling.
Here, drawn from the immense private collection of the intelligence historian H. Keith Melton, and the collections of the C.I.A., the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the National Reconnaissance Office, are objects ranging from a poisoned needle, hidden inside a coin, to a fragment of the United States Embassy in Moscow that the Soviets riddled with bugs during its construction in the 1980s; two floors were razed and rebuilt.
There is a K.G.B. model of the umbrella that injected a poison ricin pellet into the Bulgarian defector Georgi Markov in 1978; a handmade pair of shoes made for a United States ambassador to Czechoslovakia in the 1960s that Czech intelligence officers bugged with a listening device in the heel; a Stasi-created molar that was hollowed out to allow microdots to be safely stored in a spyâs mouth; and a well-preserved rat with a Velcroed body cavity that was used by Americans in Moscow for exchanges of information without agentsâ actually meeting. The rodent, treated with hot pepper sauce to discourage scavenging cats, was easily tossed from a passing car for these âdead drops.â
But most of these objects, tools of the trade over a half-century, are not the stuff of the âMission Impossibleâ franchise; they are almost all deliberately mundane. They are not meant to startle; they are meant to fade into the background. They work like tricks sold in a magic shop. And they must be used with similar skill.
Something else is similar: once explained, the magic is gone. The objects used in espionage can almost seem silly. Really! Grown people sprinkling dust (nitrophenylpentadienal) on objects to track the movements of whoever touched them? Using a hat, glasses and a fake mustache as a disguise? Employing a hollowed-out nickel to hide top-secret microfilm? All of espionage can easily seem like a kidâs game, except for the trails of blood and insight that are invariably left in its wake.
And this show, produced by Base Entertainment, contains more than enough to make it resemble a childâs game: interactive screens on which you can disguise a photo of yourself; kiosks where your voice can be distorted and filtered; a mist-filled dark room with shifting laser beams that challenge you to make your way across, without breaking the circuit. (A password-oriented interactive game is too lame for its climactic position in the exhibition.)
There are also larger objects here that reveal, more dramatically, that technological sophistication is not a requirement, nor is it something that necessarily increases over time. Next to a collapsible motor scooter with which Allied spies parachuted behind enemy lines during World War II is a saddle, draped with an Afghan blanket, that was used by a C.I.A. officer riding across the forbidding terrain during the first months after the Sept. 11 attacks.
But the objects selected by Mr. Melton â whose collection of over 9,000 spy devices, books and papers has also helped stock the International Spy Museum in Washington â are not presented simply for sensationâs sake. There are very few weapons here, aside from the ice-climbing ax that was brutally smashed into Trotskyâs skull in Mexico â and we see it mounted near his assassinâs bloodied eyeglasses.
Mr. Melton also has stories behind his acquisition of such objects, though his reluctance to share his methods in too much detail suggests a firsthand experience with the world he is documenting. (How did an original K.G.B. model of the bugged American Embassy get into his hands?)
What happens along the way is that we gain an appreciation for the magic as well as the method; we end up glimpsing what these ordinary objects actually accomplished and what was at stake when they were used. The show could have been stronger if that context had been made clearer, but even with its gadget-centered focus, we learn that this great bag of tricks was no mere game.
âSpy: The Secret World of Espionageâ is on view through March 31, 2013, at Discovery Times Square, 226 West 44th Street; discoverytsx.com.
Research Electronics International (REI), a leading manufacturer of security equipment to protect against corporate espionage, asserts that corporate espionage and theft of information is thriving. According to Frank Figliuzzi, FBI Counterintelligence Assistant Director, the current FBI caseload shows that commercial secrets worth more than US$13 billion have been stolen from American companies. This number does not include the unreported or undetected losses, nor does it include the losses in the brand value of the victims. The sheer scale of economic espionage against the nationâs top companies threatens Americaâs economic and technical position in the global economy.
It is a common misconception that espionage only occurs at government agencies and does not affect the business world. However, REI has been promoting that companies should be aware that any information that might benefit a competitor is at risk of espionage or theft, including price lists, customer lists, marketing strategies, insider product information, and financial information. Recently, the FBI launched a campaign promoting corporate espionage awareness including billboards, signs in bus shelters, and website information educating the public about the real and present threat of corporate information theft, and encouraging companies to protect their information from theft.
Companies should be on guard and take the following steps to protect business related information, as stated on the FBIâs website:
1. Recognize there is an insider and outsider threat to your company.
2. Identify and valuate trade secrets.
3. Implement a proactive plan for safeguarding trade secrets.
4. Secure physical and electronic versions of your trade secrets.
5. Confine intellectual knowledge on a “need-to-know” basis.
6. Provide training to employees about your company’s intellectual property plan and security.
For more information on technical equipment to protect against corporate espionage, visit http://www.reiusa.net.
About Research Electronics International
For over 28 years, Research Electronics International (REI) has focused on protecting corporate information, designing and manufacturing technical security equipment to protect against illicit information theft. REI is recognized as an industry leader by corporations, law enforcement agencies, and government agencies for technical security equipment. REIâs corporate offices, RD, manufacturing facilities, and Center for Technical Security are located in Tennessee USA, with an extensive global network of resellers and distribution partners. For more information call +1 (931) 537-6032 or visit REI on the web at http://www.reiusa.net.
Contact Person: Lee Jones
Research Electronics International
Tel: +1 931 537-6032
email: sales(at)reiusa(dot)net
LEE JONES
RESEARCH ELECTRONICS INTERNATIONAL
(931) 537-6032
Email Information
IKEA has sacked four executives, including a country manager and head of security, after an internal probe into spying on workers at its French operations.
In March, police searched the French HQ of the Swedish furniture group at Plaisir, in the west of Paris, after employees complained about spying. Ikea launched an inquiry with the help of independent advisors.
âThere have unfortunately within the Ikea group existed work practices contrary to the companyâs values and ethical standards,â it said in a statement.
âAs a result of this, a former country manager, a former human resources manager, a former chief financial officer and the current head of security will leave their positions and the Ijea group.â
Satirical weekly Le Canard Enchaine published in February e-mails allegedly exchanged between Ikea bosses in France and a private security company.
The paper said they showed Ikea had sought information from police files on numerous people including a union leader and a client in dispute with it.
Tyler Clementi apparently committed suicide after his college roommate, Dharun Ravi, spied on him with another man and tweeted about it.
(Credit:Â Tyler Clementi)
A Rutgers University student was sentenced to 30 days in jail today for spying on his gay roommate’s romantic encounter, an act that may have been related to the roommate’s subsequent suicide.
Dharun Ravi, 20, set up the Webcam several times, urged others to watch and tweeted about watching his roommate, Tyler Clementi, “making out with a dude.” The 18-year-old Clementi jumped to his death from a bridge a few days after learning about the spying.
Ravi, who faced up to 10 years in prison, was charged with 15 counts, including invasion of privacy, bias intimidation, hindering apprehension and tampering with a witness and evidence. He was also sentenced to three years’ probation, 300 hours of community service and ordered to pay a $10,000 probation fee and to get counseling about cyberbully sensitivity.
Although the judge had told the jury that the suicide was not relevant to the case, he noted Ravi’s lack of remorse for his actions.
“You lied to your roommate who placed his trust in you without any conditions, and you violated it,” said Judge Glenn Berman of New Jersey State Superior Court, according to the New York Times. “I haven’t heard you apologize once.”
The prosecutor had made the same argument, noting that the day after Clementi’s suicide, Ravi texted a friend about wanting to return to Rutgers: “How can I convince my mom to let me go back Friday night and get drunk.”
